At a covert forward operating base run by the US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) in the Pakistani port city of Karachi, members of an elite division of Blackwater are at the center of a secret program in which they plan targeted assassinations of suspected Taliban and Al Qaeda operatives, "snatch and grabs" of high-value targets and other sensitive action inside and outside Pakistan, an investigation by The Nation has found. The Blackwater operatives also assist in gathering intelligence and help direct a secret US military drone bombing campaign that runs parallel to the well-documented CIA predator strikes, according to a well-placed source within the US military intelligence apparatus.

Despite this tying of Blackwater, with its horrible reputation for abuses, especially in Iraq, to drone operations in Pakistan, no response from Barack Obama or David Petraeus has been seen. News stories routinely cite the animosity created by the drone attacks, as seen, for example, in the BBC story on the helicopter raids:

The raids, however, will do nothing to improve anti-American sentiment which is being fuelled by escalating numbers of drone attacks on targets in Pakistan, our correspondent adds.

But the $76 million is dwarfed by the massive humanitarian assistance — hundreds of millions — the U.S. military brought directly to victims of the 2005 earthquake and the 2004 tsunami — delivered via aircraft carriers, hospital ships and thousands of American troops. U.S. military helicopters flew some 6,000 relief operations to Pakistani earthquake victims alone. For both the 2005 earthquake and the tsunami, the U.S. military worked closely with local governments, but did not leave it primarily up to them to deliver the aid.

Just as US action was too little when it came to flood relief, action in sentencing Aafia Siddiqui was excessive, as pointed out by ondelette:

Judge Richard Berman rewrote verdicts, applied enhancements and came up with 86 years, and after insisting that the defendant was sane, remanded her to Carswell Federal Prison for the Criminally Insane. For her part, Aafia Siddiqui told her supporters not to be angry but to forgive.

The New York Law Journal has a good article on how you can get 86 years out of an attempted murder verdict. They said Judge Berman applied all the enhancements possible. For instance, he made it a hate crime. And he apparently added years because he said she lied on the stand. Presumably that’s because she said she didn’t shoot the gun? The prosecution never proved she did, but never mind. The one that really got me was when he "ruled", on the insistence of Christopher LaVigne, that the shooting was "premeditated". That one overruled the jury, as Carolyn Weaver of Voice of America rightly pointed out, they had thrown out the verdict of premeditation last Spring.

The government decided on Friday to use legal, political and diplomatic means for repatriation of Dr Aafia Siddiqui who was sentenced to 86 years imprisonment by a US court on Thursday.

/snip/

The prime minister said in a statement that the government would use all options to get Dr Siddiqui repatriated and would ask US authorities to consider her a prisoner of war.

The decision was taken in the wake of countrywide demonstrations organised by a number of political and religious parties calling for release of Dr Siddiqui and condemning the US government and its judicial system.

The article also notes that the government of Pakistan has approved $2 million for use in the case.

So, in the same week that has seen Obama burned in effigy and protesters stopped by riot police as they headed for the US mission, NATO forces cross the border into Pakistan by helicopter to kill over 50 people. I shudder to think what the response will be if the targeting of these attacks proves to be as faulty as some previous attacks. If it turns out that a large number of women and children are among the dead in these air strikes, this could be the final straw for Pakistan. In that regard, it is worth noting what appears to be a warning to the US in the Dawn article about the protests, where it is stated in just the second paragraph that Pakistan is a "nuclear-armed Muslim nation of 167 million". That is a warning that Obama and Petraeus should consider very carefully as they monitor investigations into the helicopter raids and other developments within Pakistan.

30 Responses to How Much More US Abuse Will Pakistan Tolerate?

If Pakistan uses its nukes, it’s likely going to be against India, which has its own supply. And India’s ability to survive a nuclear exchange is a lot better than Pakistan’s. However, this will likely not happen as the Chinese, who share a border with both nations and would not like it if a big chunk of their water supply suddenly went radioactive, will be letting both nations know that lobbing nukes is in nobody’s best interests. And as Japan’s recently discovered, the Chinese play hardball.

“The CIA is implicated in a court case in which it’s claimed it used an illegal, inaccurate software “hack” to direct secret assassination drones in central Asia.

The target of the court action is Netezza, the data warehousing firm that IBM bid $1.7bn for on Monday. The case raises serious questions about the conduct of Netezza executives, and the conduct of CIA’s clandestine war against senior jihadis in Afganistan and Pakistan.”

We hired Obama, in part, to improve foreign relations, and Obama went forward and talked “nice talk” during his first year or so. And like so much else with Obama, don’t pay one whit of attention to what he says, focus only on what he does.

We’re completely over-stretched by 2 totally useless wars which are enuring to no one’s benefit, other than drug pushers & gun runners (I’m looking at you, CIA). Right now the USA is providing arms to the Taliban, who turn around and use them against our troops. But hey! Someone’s making big payola outta that, so go for it.

Insanity on steroids.

Conservatives are convinced that we shouldn’t help poor brown people anywhere; the nation’s sole goal is to trounce everyone into submission.

So we have starving Haitains on our doorstep scared and hungry during hurricane season, and we have starving Pakhistani’s barely surviving an epic flood. But allegedly we’re there to “win hearts & minds.” We don’t have enough money and people-power to do the “right” things in terms of assisting those in need, and we’re royally messing up running wars for no reason. A waste of money, of time and lives. And it’s the Chinese who manage to benefit from any mineral resources that can be ripped off of the Afghani’s, not us.

What. a. mess.

I dunno… cannot begin to fathom how this will ever end, much less end “well” for anyone.

Pakistan is the Afghanistan War’s real aggressor. The US military is fighting Pakistan-supported partisans on two fronts, within Afghanistan and on the border.

General McChrystal’s Report, Aug 30, 2009:

Pakistan. Afghanistan’s insurgency is clearly supported from Pakistan. Senior leaders of the major Afghan insurgent groups are based in Pakistan, are linked with al Qaeda and other violent extremist groups, and are reportedly aided by some elements of Pakistan’s ISI. . .

US troops not only get hurt from Pakistan-supported people within Afghanistan, but also on the border dealing with fighters from within Pakistan. 60 Minutes Report Sunday night:

(CBS) If you want to know how the war is going in Afghanistan, there’s no better place to go than the tiny American combat outposts all along the border with Pakistan.

The fight there is brutal, the intensity unlike anything we’ve witnessed in nine years of covering this war.

U.S. soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division are locked in a never-ending battle with an enemy that uses the border as an open door. The soldiers say that as fast as they can kill them, they just keep coming across the border from safe havens in Pakistan, trying to kill as many Americans as they can.

Why is Pakistan acting this way? India, Pakistan’s arch-enemy has an increasing influence in Afghanistan. General McChrystal again:

Indian political and economic influence is increasing in Afghanistan, including significant development efforts and financial investment. In addition, the current Afghan government is perceived by Islamabad to be pro-Indian. While Indian activities largely benefit the Afghan people, increasing Indian influence in Afghanistan is likely to exacerbate regional tensions and encourage Pakistani countermeasures in Afghanistan or India.

All empires quickly become self-perpetuating, inertial. There’s no going back now. I don’t think there was, realistically, when the military remained at strength after WWII. When people crowed that Reagan had broken the Soviets by pushing it beyond its capacity to afford an arms race, I thought We can’t afford it, either. The faster we get to the end of this jingoistic megalomania, the better, but it will be ugly and painful getting there.

Woodward quotes Petraeus as saying, “You have to recognize also that I don’t think you win this war. I think you keep fighting. It’s a little bit like Iraq, actually. . . . Yes, there has been enormous progress in Iraq. But there are still horrific attacks in Iraq, and you have to stay vigilant. You have to stay after it. This is the kind of fight we’re in for the rest of our lives and probably our kids’ lives.” http://firedoglake.com/2010/09/22/president-obama-needs-to-fire-david-petraeus/

Winning hearts and minds to quell the hatin’ of Americans and establishing Democracy Beachheads.

SUKKUR, Pakistan — As the disastrous floods recede in Pakistan, something new is rising: suspicions and rumors that powerful officials and landowners used their influence to divert water away from their property and inundate the villages and fields of millions of poor Pakistanis.

On September 27, 2001, the FBI released photos of the 19 hijackers, along with information about the possible nationalities and aliases of many. Fifteen of the hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, two from the United Arab Emirates, one from Egypt (Atta), and one from Lebanon.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_11_attacks

President Franklin D. Roosevelt: Yesterday, December 7, 1941—a date which will live in infamy—the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.

Pakistan’s the enemy? Bring back the draft! That’ll get everyone on board. What’s in your wallet?

The “draft” won’t “get everybody on board” unless “everybody” is subject to that “draft”.

Who would you draft, 1der?

Young men?

Young women?

How about just “drafting” everybody over a certain age?

How old are you?

I understand “where” you’re coming from, 1der, being old enough to have experienced the “draft” … my concern is where those who are “drafted” are going to be sent … over “there”?

Basically, my question to you boils down to this; what “skin” would you have in the “game” were the “draft” reinstated?

Besides, there is the “volunteer” army now, however, the big business “deal” is the “contractors” … so a “draft” is most unlikely, being neither “amenable” to easy “adventures” (which you imply) or lucrative, really, really lucrative, although the claim continues to be made that contractors, somehow, save the taxpayers’ money …

According to what I heard on NPR, the US is now saying that no troops or aircraft violated the Pakistan border from Afghanistan when at least 35 Taliban were supposedly killed. Only the missiles violated the border and the bodies of those they penetrated. The justification is the Taliban fired on us first. That takes a lot of trust to believe. Trust spelled S-t-u-p-i-d-i-t-y.

The draft is fundamental to a democracy, even a democracy that’s fudged its drafts as baldly as America has. Probably one of the worst things Nixon did, and all in the service of a political agenda. Sounds so familiar, doesn’t it? Iron ships and wooden men. I wonder if the rise of a professional political class is always the beginning of the end?

I was drafted and served, that was snark. I appreciate what Gen. Smedley Butler wrote about war – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Is_a_Racket, and as right-wing as he was Col. David Hackworth’s views which are much the same. I find it a waste of lives and treasure, if the draft did return we wouldn’t be so quick to “Shock and Awe”. The Pentagon is a business, IMO, that needs downsizing.

Do not be too sorry for Pakistan as it is a military/secret police dictatorship, just as is the USA. There is no real government as shown by the lack of flood control during their yearly monsoons. The Pakistan government controls the terrorist groups L-e-T and “Al Qaeda” and many others and they assisted the 9-11 hijackers, although they try to have “plausible deniability”. The Pakistan government bombed the Indian Embassy in Kabul and attacked Mumbai in 2008. But Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama continue to fund Pakistan which pays for more terrorism. Forever War.

We is in general agreement, 1der, Butler deserves far more appreciation than history or most Americans accord him.

Seriously, 1der, a draft of only those fifty years or older would be even more effective … as even most old war horses would rather sit on their laurels and recount their long-ago feats of “derring-do” rather than grab such sharp and brutal thorns as they must know they would encounter in the “hot” moments of “organized” mayhem.

When you’re being attacked by the largest and most savage military in the history of the planet, there’s not much you can do, especially when the society that’s attacking you employs hundreds of researchers who devote their minds to thinking up new ways to singe flesh off “the enemy,” new ways to make bombs as painful and destructive as possible, new ways to remove the attackers from the scene of their crimes by making their weapons remote-controlled. And in the society that’s attacking Pakistan, such researchers are considered “respectable” and heaped with accolades. The Pakistanis and Afghans have been blowing up things associated with the US and its puppet organization NATO recently, but any violence they can achieve pales in comparison with what the US and its sacred “troops” do routinely. And remember what happened when Iraqi Fallujans tried to avenge themselves on the US after the US had slaughtered peaceful protesters – that’s right, the US destroyed their city using weapons that will leave generations of birth defects and cancerous deformities, something the Vietnamese know about as well. What indeed can Pakistan do? It’s what Americans do to try to stop this that can really have an effect, but there’s nothing like an anti-war movement to speak of at this point, probably won’t be, given the mental state of Americans these days.

Are you serious ?
The biggest mistake US made was to declare Pakistan a friend. It is Pakistan they should have attacked instead because this is the head of the snake and not Afghanistan.
All the Billions in aid US has given to Pakistan has gone to the terrorists because it is a terrorist state.
Karzai tried when but found out quickly that instead of putting the aid and money in Afghanistan, US was giving to the very terrorist state Pakistan where all this originates.
The question is how much longer and how much more will US arm them and make it a real problem for the world. Because this state will start WWIII. Not just the US but the entire world will pay a terrible price for US mistake.

I met Hackworth “Hack” in Vietnam, who was underappreciated, except by his men of the 1st Battalion of the 327th Infantry. Hack was right about Iraq.

“”We’re heading down the same road. Only this time, it’s happening faster. It took three, four centuries for Rome to decline and fall. We might do it in three or four decades. Hell, maybe three or four years. Or months! Who the hell knows?”

He paused for a moment; I could see him trying to calm his breathing. He began to slowly read from the Wall, his eyes moving randomly over the panel. “David T. Hilton. William C. Langham. John A. Gibson. Richard Galan. Danny Lee Frye. Cecil D. Lamm. All these boys blown off the face of the Earth, because we just can’t keep our noses out of what’s happening on the other side of the world. Ever read George Washington’s Farewell Address?”

I shook my head. “He told us not to concern ourselves with what other countries are doing to and amongst themselves. He said it would just get us mired in a big mess. But did we listen? Nooooo. He warned us! Jefferson warned us! Most all of the Founders warned us! John Quincy Adams, about thirty years later, said ‘America does not go out in search of monsters to destroy.’ Well, now we do, John Q.

“You know what I finally figured out? People don’t start wars. Countries don’t start wars. It’s governments that start wars. Fuckin’ governments. And we go along with it. Whenever you see a problem, social or economic or political, and think that government should do something about the problem, do a little homework and you’ll probably find that government is the source of the problem. And war is just the epitome of government problem solving. So what if a majority thinks that this coming war is right. The majority is just something that government manufactures and manipulates to give the appearance of legitimacy to what government does.

If Bush had of went after Osama bin Laden, a CIA operative who we paid his daddy to cut those caves, instead of someone who had nothing to do with 9/11 or terrorist, he would have been dead at Tora Bora and we would be in no war and a lot richer. Of course Halliburton or Black Water wouldn’t be! I guess that was the REAL agenda!

Welcome to FDL

Sign in with Facebook or Google+

OR use your MyFDL username

Toolbox

MyFDL is Firedoglake's community site. Anyone can participate by commenting on posts or joining groups to find other people in your area. Content posted to MyFDL is the opinion of the author alone, and should not be attributed to Firedoglake.